KoreanClass101.com Blog

All of my students know that I am leaving during summer vacation, and that next semester there will be a new English teacher.  And although theorhetically, they have all been told I'm not leaving until the end of August, NOT all of them really grasped that part. This week I am in the middle of a 10-day English day camp for 4th and 5th graders.  There are all sorts of programs going on at school, so kids are in and out all day long.  If you are a Korean student, there really is no such thing as summer vacation.  One of my students told me that he wasn't looking forward to it because even though he wouldn't have to go to school, his mother would make him attend 학원 all day long now. Anyway, one little girl in 1st grade saw me at school... Show more

This past Saturday at my Korean Church we had a special event - a baby's first birthday party. In Korea, the baby's first birthday party is very important, and one of the events at the birthday party is said to even foretell the baby's future. This is called 돌잡이 (doljabi). Generally, many different things are spread out on a table, and the baby is encouraged to pick one of the things. The object that the baby picks is said to influence the baby's future. Usually on the table is money (means the baby will be rich), rice (means he won't go hungry), a pencil (means he will be scholarly), among other objects that all have a significance for his future. At this particular 돌잡이 there was a debit card instead of cash (nobody had any!... Show more

Right now Korea is having its rainy season. Although it might not be as intense as rainy seasons in some parts of the world, the rainy season in Korea can make you start hating rain to an extent (in my personal point of view, haha) - and it's called 장마 (jang ma). This post is not so much about the 장마 itself because it isn't THAT interesting. I just wanted to share a video with all of you who read the KClass Blog :) Here's a video I took on a bus from where I live (near 동대문) to 강남 (a major downtown area in Seoul) on my way to go meet a friend.  The bus goes over one of the many bridges that go over 한강 (Han River) which is about 1 km wide on average. After the bus goes over Han River and you'll recognize some signs that have some words... Show more

Mistranslation. Okay, so a little linguistics never hurt anyone. A transference error is when something gets lost in the translation (think old Jackie Chan movies). This superbly hilarious phenomenon is not exclusive to Korean-English, English-Korean but it still is pretty funny nonetheless. One of my favorites is the whole "our mom" situation. 우리 어머니 is a way of saying "that mother in this context", "our mother" or "the mother that we both know". But when you look at it, even a newbie can be thrown off by the context. "What? Our mother? Dude, that's MY mother!" Good stuff. Why do you know my mom, man? :) How exactly is she your mom, too? Why don't we have "our" everything? This is one of those things that just doesn't translate... Show more

While I was helping teach at an elementary school, I noticed the kids said 멍미 a lot. I asked the English teachers and she said she didn't know what it meant. I thought maybe I was pronouncing it wrong or something, but later one of the students I tutor said it too, he was in 6th grade and when I asked him what it meant, he said it was 'secret language' and that it meant just "what?!" . I don't exactly know what it translates to, because he used it often and sometimes I think saying "what" in some situations wouldn't quite make sense. but while I was in 서울 he high school kids used what they called "secret language" too. I think it's more like slang though. Some other words that I learned were the slang words for elementary student, middle... Show more